The view flying over San Francisco is one of the best views I recall. Of course I expected to be busted for snapping photos after the flight announcement to turn off electronics. I was the jerk for this United Airlines flight who was busted for too much carry-on luggage and the boarding area UA employee at SEA refused to let me board until I consolidated my luggage. I pulled on my sweatshirt and jacket and shoved my glasses into the computer bag as other passengers with slim suitcases and bags made me look like a first-time traveler. I seriously did not want to spend $25 to check my bag.

After a week in the 40s in Seattle, the warmth of San Francisco sun had me stuffing my sweatshirt and coat back in my carry-on bag immediately upon exiting the airport while waiting for a shuttle to the Marriott Airport hotel. The Westin San Francisco Airport hotel shuttle came first so I hopped on that and figured I could walk across the street to the Marriott. Kelley refused to drive into the airport so we planned a rendezvous at an airport hotel before driving into the city for a $98 night at the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf.

I felt like a VIP after immediately finding free unmetered parking a few blocks away from the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf on North Point Street to leave the car until noon the next day. Kelley hates walking up to a hotel after rolling her luggage a few blocks, but I hate spending $50 to park my car at a hotel when I can park for free and roll my luggage a few blocks.

And I was greeted as a VIP at the Hyatt San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf.

Room 545 – Presidential Suite.

A massage chair in the bedroom was never so welcome a sight! Kelley jumped in the chair for a 20 minute massage before I had even finished surveying the living room of the Presidential Suite. The sunlight reflecting off Coit Tower and the downtown skyscrapers captivated my eyes. This view blows away any room I have had at the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf.

The living room had a large screen TV with Bose surround sound system. An eclectic collection of DVDs like The Rock, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Joy Luck Club, Dirty Harry, Interview with the Vampire, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner had me confounded until I realized they all have San Francisco settings. I liked the swiveling space chairs, but Kelley did not find them that comfortable.

Ground coffee in containers was a first for me. There was a wine refrigerator and a second empty refrigerator in the living room.

The bathroom was well-equipped, however, the scale only read “error” and Kelley was disappointed that the spa tub jets worked only intermittently with a malfunctioning wall switch. The large bathroom had impossibly diffuse lighting for decent cosmetic work.

The shower water pressure worked great.

I would really like to know the rationale for choosing the room art. The living room had some absurdly existentialist piece of art with aboriginal peoples carrying a dead 20-foot python or boa with overlaying text about a woman sitting in her apartment unaware of her phone number or something and the other portion of the picture looked like numbered bloody pigeons to me. The art kind of freaked me out and made me desire some Golden Gate Bridge kitsch that wouldn’t give me bad dreams.

 

I wanted to try the neighborhood Irish pub-Indian restaurant I had stumbled across in December, but considering the extravagant complimentary upgrade, we decided to eat in-house at the sports bar-restaurant Knuckles in the Hyatt. The menu seemed limited to me, although Kelley had a nice salmon meal. The staff was overtly friendly and talkative.

Canadians at an adjacent booth had their own tv screen and they were cheering on one of their national hockey teams in a losing effort. Leaving the restaurant Kelley walks over to them and says “Go Sharks!” and the next thing I know I am hit with some food item like an olive or cherry tomato. Kelley stayed and bantered with the party for a minute. I stepped around the corner – out of their line of fire.

The Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf is a five story building. The best views of San Francisco are on the Taylor Street side. The hotel is two blocks from the water and the Bay views are limited.

The lobby is one of the areas that could probably use a redesign to improve traffic flow. The registration desk at the entrance of the hotel created problems a couple of times while we were there. Guests line up in front of the desk and once there are five or six guests and luggage, then the line extending across the narrowest part of the lobby impedes the cross traffic for the restaurant and concierge desk to the right of the entrance and the elevators to the left of the entrance.

A nice feature for tourists is a laundry room for guests in the hotel.

The hotel has an outdoor pool and spa tub on the third floor. This property is the only Hyatt of the three in San Francisco (Grand Hyatt Union Square, Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero) with a swimming pool.

Fisherman’s Wharf is a nice walking area for good views of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, and Golden Gate Bridge. North Beach is just a ten minute walk away from the Bay and downtown Union Square is accessible by a $5 cable car ride, $2 on the bus, or a 30 minute walk. I guess most tourists would probably take a taxi around the city. I have a taxi phobia.

Leaving San Francisco we stopped on 34th Street, the road below the Legion of Honor Museum where the Lincoln Golf Course crosses the road and has a wonderful view of the Golden Gate.

U.S. based Priority Club members can earn a $50 gift card for every IHG brand stay worldwide that includes a weekend night, Friday or Saturday, from May 14 through August 31, 2010. The gift card offer becomes activated with the second qualifying stay during the promotion period. There is a maximum earning limit of $500 in gift cards.

Gift card certificate expires in 12 months from date of issue. Gift card certificates should be awarded within six weeks of qualifying stay.

Priority Club member registration is required.

Priority Club members must choose between earning a) Double Points or Miles and b) the $50 Gift Cardoffer. You can’t switch offers once you have made your selection.

I initially wrote about the Priority Club summer promotion on April 15, however, the link for the “Hit it Big” gift card offer, an additional US resident component of this summer offer was not yet active.

Personally, I selected the gift card offer.

There are too many great opportunities to put much effort into IHG stays this summer when other programs allow members to earn free nights like Hilton (4 stays) and Hyatt (2 stays) through June 30, Starwood (3 stays through July 31), and Best Western (2 stays by Aug 15), Carlson Hotels (2 stays by Aug 31), and Marriott (3 stays by August 31). Check out this week’s the Loyalty Traveler hotel promotion summary for other offers.

But still, I might find myself needing a couple of nights with an IHG brand and $50 is a decent incentive.

Priority Club Rewards “Hit it Big” Promotion analysis:

Earn a $50 Gift Card beginning with second weekend stay.

The $50 gift card offer is on top of the normal points or miles earned for a hotel stay. The list of merchants eligible for gift cards includes Amazon.com, Target, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreen’s and many restaurant chains. The gift card should be as good as a cash rebate for many travelers. Here is the full list of merchants.

Sample Hotel Stay Analysis

Assume you stay a Friday night at one IHG brand and a Saturday night at another IHG brand hotel. Your rate is $75 per night. You earn 1,500 base points for the stays and if you sign up for several other Priority Club promotions, then you will likely earn another 5,000 or so points.

The $50 gift card is an additional 33% rebate. Additional weekend stays will provide a $50 rebate. There are plenty of IHG brand hotels that will be under $75 per night, meaning one weekend night can provide nearly a 100% rebate after points and gift card are earned.

San Jose Example:

May 21, 2010 Holiday Inn San Jose International Airport, AAA rate = $54; $61.48 after tax.

May 22, 2010 Crowne Plaza San Jose-Silicon Valley, AAA rate $67.15; $73.91 after tax.

The first IHG weekend stay at the Holiday Inn does not earn the $50 gift card. The second night at the Crowne Plaza earns a $50 gift card and every subsequent weekend stay during the promotion period earns the gift card.

Total cost for two IHG brand hotels stays in San Jose this weekend = $135.39.

Two stays earn 1,211 Priority Club points + $50 gift card.

Repeat this same pattern next week and you earn a total 2,422 Priority Club points + $150 in gift cards for a total outlay of $271.

While this promotion is probably not worth booking hotel nights unless you really need them, the opportunity to have four hotel nights for a net cost of $121 after the gift card rebates — an average room night cost of $30.25 — is a bit better than you will find with Priceline or Hotwire.

Check out the Priority Club current promotion offers on this FlyerTalk thread or PriorityClubInsider.com for other promotion codes to register to your account and increase your chances of earning over 5,000 Priority Club points per hotel stay while earning gift cards. Savvy Priority Club members pull in as many as 5,000 to 10,000 points for each IHG stay. Priority Club is great for allowing combinable bonus offers on the same hotel stay.

The other Priority Club Hit it Big Earning Options

Double Points/Miles – This offer begins with your first stay if Candlewood Suites or Staybridge Suites, otherwise double points or miles will be earned beginning with your second qualifying stay at any IHG brand between May 14 and August 31.

This offer is probably better if you have multiple night stays or if you rarely stay on Friday or Saturday night. And of course you will only have this offer if you are not a U.S. resident since the gift card component is restricted to residents of the US.

Earning Priority Club points (IHG link)

Double points is an additional 10 points per $1 for most IHG brands and is not affected by other promotions or elite status.

Assume $200 spent on Wednesday-Thursday night stay. You will normally earn 10 base points per $1 + promotion bonuses + elite bonuses. Double points means $200 earns 4,000 Priority Club base points + additional bonuses for other promotions and elite status. InterContinental Hotel stays earn a fixed 2,000 points per stay so double points is 4,000 points per stay, regardless of the amount of money you spend.

Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites regularly earn 5 points per $1, so double points is 10 points per $1 at these two IHG extended stay brands.

Earning Airline miles from IHG stays

Most US and Mexican airline partners with Priority Club normally earn 2 miles per $1. Double miles offers 4 miles per $1.  InterContinental Hotel stays normally earn 500 miles per stay – 1,000 miles with the double miles offer. Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites offer 1 mile per $1 regularly so 2 miles per $1 with double miles.

Most international airlines normally offer 500 miles per stay regardless of brand. The double miles offer is a good time to earn miles with an international airline partner of Priority Club for 1,000 miles per stay.

There are plenty of airline miles earning variations so check the Priority Club airline partner list for all the fine print details.

You must select miles as your earning preference to collect double miles.

Conclusion: The gift card offer is a good deal if you need a hotel stay and the rates for an IHG brand are significantly lower than the other brands offering free nights. Be sure to register for Hyatt, Carlson goldpoints plus, and Best Western to take advantage of their two stays earn a free night offers.

This is an incredible time for hotel travel these next few months. Pack your bags, load the car or jump on a plane, and register for all the lucrative hotel offers.

Priority Club’s Gift Card offer is a 4-key promotion, however, keep in mind there are plenty of five-key free night offers from other hotel loyalty programs this summer that allow you to earn a free night at an upscale hotel for less than the normal rate of one paid night.

Wyndham Hotels has an online summer game if you like to play games. Pick a traveler identity from

a)      The Fun-seeking Family

b)      The Flocking Friends of a Feather

c)       The On-the-Go Business Pros

d)      The Continent Exploring Couple

e)      The Gallivanting Grandparents

You can play a weekly trivia game with your Wyndham avatar for a chance to win a five-night hotel stay, $25 gift card, or a three-day golf getaway.

If games are not your thing, then you can skip the trivia questions and go directly to an opportunity for an instant win. The trivia questions were actually challenging and opening up a second browser I actually kicked myself out of the game for this week after answering two questions.

Contest begins May 13 and ends September 7. Open to residents of 50 US states and D.C. and Canada. Contest is not valid for residents of Puerto Rico and US territories.

I wouldn’t bother writing about this promotion if it were only a chance at a contest prize.

The real value of Wyndham’s Mission: Save Summer is a list of 20 discount opportunities for Wyndham brand hotel stays for the summer months and beyond.

1. Wyndham Resorts – Stay 3 consecutive nights before August 31 and save 30% on Best Available Rate.
2. Wingate – Book 3 consecutive nights before December 31 and save 30% on Best Available Rate.
3. Hawthorn Suites – Book 3 consecutive nights before December 31 and save 30% on Best Available Rate.
4. Ramada – Save 20% on stays of 3 nights or longer.
5. Ramada- Save 15% on Best Available Rate for reservations made 14 days in advance. Prepaid rate.
6. Days Inn – Save 15% for two consecutive nights.
7. Days Inn – Save 20% on 3 night or longer stays through December 31.
8. Days Inn – Book 14 days in advance and save 20% on Best Available Rate. Prepaid and no changes allowed.
9. Super 8 – Save 15% on Best Available Rate when booking 8 days in advance. Prepaid and no changes allowed.
10. Baymont – Save $10 per night when you stay at least 3 consecutive nights and book by May 31.
11. Microtel – Save $10 per night when you stay at least 3 consecutive nights by September 1.
12. Microtel – Book 14 days in advance and save 20% on Best Available Rate. Prepaid and no changes allowed.
13. Howard Johnson – Save 15% on Best Available Rate when you book two or more consecutive nights for stays through June 15.
14. Howard Johnson – Book 3 consecutive nights and stay by June 15 and save 30% on Best Available Rate.
15. Howard Johnson – Book 14 days in advance and save 20% on Best Available Rate for stays through June 15. Prepaid and no changes allowed.
16. Travelodge – Save 15% on Best Available Rate when you book two or more consecutive nights for stays through June 15.
17. Travelodge – Book 3 consecutive nights and stay by June 15 and save 30% on Best Available Rate.
18. Travelodge – Book 14 days in advance and save 20% on Best Available Rate. Prepaid and no changes allowed.
19. Knights Inn – Book 3 consecutive nights before December 31 and save 20% on Best Available Rate.
20. Knights Inn – Book 7 days in advance and save 15% on Best Available Rate for stays through December 31, 2010. Prepaid and no changes allowed.

Wyndham Rewards has a good American Airlines 13,500 miles offer to take advantage of with your hotel stays at Wyndham, Wingate, or Hawthorn Suites through September 30.

Press releases for Priority Club’s Hotels Anywhere online booking option hit the trade magazines yesterday. My initial title for this piece was “Priority Club’s Hotels Anywhere Offer is a Point Waster,” but after an analysis I had to change my opinion. There are some deals in this new program, in spite of, or perhaps due to the fact that there does not seem to be a direct correlation between a hotel’s room rate and the cost for a free night in Priority Club Rewards points. Hotels Anywhere link.

I looked into this points spending option to figure out how this is new or different or better than the existing option of the prepaid card program called Any Hotel, Anywhere?

The difference between the programs is this new Priority Club offer allows a member to instantly book a competitor’s hotel using Priority Club points, however, the selection of hotels available is limited to those found on the ezRez booking site. A “Hotels Anywhere” search for hotels in my home area of Monterey returned just four hotels. There are about 200 hotels on the Monterey Peninsula within ten miles of my home in one of California’s major tourist destinations.

The Any Hotel, Anywhere prepaid card program offers a fixed exchange rate based on the card denomination and allows the Priority Club member to exchange points for cash cards good at any hotel that takes American Express.

Any Hotel, Anywhere prepaid American Express cards come in five denominations for US members.

• $100 = 29,000 points (1,000 points = $3.45 cash)
• $125 = 34,000 points (1,000 points = $3.67 cash)
• $150 = 39,000 points (1,000 points = $3.85 cash)
• $200 = 49,000 points (1,000 points = $4.08 cash)
• $250 = 59,000 points (1,000 points = $4.24 cash)

Your points are worth 22.9% more cash when redeeming 59,000 points for a $250 card compared to 29,000 points for a $100 card.

Update May 21: Reader Udi points out in the comments what is perhaps the greatest advantage of prepaid cards over the Hotels Anywhere online booking with points — you can earn loyalty credit with SPG, Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt when booking rooms and paying for the room using Priority Club Any Hotel, Anywhere cards. You may find better exchange rates for your Priority Club points with online booking, however, online bookings will not be eligible for loyalty credit with the competitor loyalty programs.

The primary drawbacks to the Any Hotel, Anywhere cards are the fine print terms:

1. Any Hotel, Anywhere card takes two to four weeks for delivery.
2. These cards are not credit cards and can’t be used to hold hotel rooms.
3. The card expires one year from date of issue.

 

Hotels Anywhere offers free nights for booking online instantly

The new Hotels Anywhere Priority Club feature is an online program allowing instant redemption of Priority Club points for hotel rooms. You need at least 20,000 points to be able to book a room. Most hotels offer a Points + Cash option at 20,000 points + cash. The Points + Cash option offers the better value for some hotels as shown in the rate analysis table below.

As previously stated, I found no direct correlation between the cost of a hotel room and the points needed for a free night. 47,000 points will buy a free night at the trendy Clift Hotel in San Francisco and save you $295. The Omni San Francisco is a hotel in the same competitive upper upscale market segment of San Francisco and this hotel will require 81,000 points to save $288.

The Hyatt Regency San Francisco cost 54,000 points for a free night compared to 58,000 points for the Grand Hyatt San Francisco. The Grand Hyatt room rate is almost $150 less than the Hyatt Regency for the night I checked.

Points redemption for Hotels Anywhere covers hotel room rate and hotel tax. An analysis of San Francisco hotels shows there are some good values available with Hotels Anywhere, but finding them takes some research.

 

When I checked Monterey/Carmel for hotels the Hotels Anywhere site only returned four hotels. The date of May 28, 2010 is the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and a major tourist holiday for the Monterey Peninsula. One night at the Embassy Suites is more than the cost of two nights at the The Clement InterContinental Monterey. Even more perplexing is the higher priced cost in points at 74,000 for one night at a budget motel when the Embassy Suites is a far nicer upper upscale hotel.

The Priority Club Hotels Anywhere program seems to have several price anomalies at this time. The algorithm used to determine Priority Club points needed for a free night is a mystery to me. The current state of the program offers some good redemption values. Find one in your favor like the Marriott San Francisco Airport or Clift Hotel in San Francisco and this can be a great way to check out upscale hotels at a bargain or use your Priority Club points to book the hotel where you need to be rather than the neighborhood IHG property.

I missed the past three weeks of loyalty promotions weekly updates due to the death in my family and bouncing up and down the west coast since April 28. My life is settling back into a predictable pattern and here is the updated version of the current loyalty promotions. I am sure there are several good promotions I have left off this list. Please leave a comment if you know of an offer I should include for readers.

The frequent guest has the choice of many hotel loyalty promotions with little guidance to their relative value. Here is Loyalty Traveler’s summary of current hotel loyalty promotions and limited time offers for the frequent guest.

Loyalty Traveler ranks the consumer value of hotel loyalty promotions on a Five Key Scale.

Five Keys = one of the best hotel loyalty promotions of the year.

Four Keys = high value rebate on the cost of hotel stays.

Three Keys = good value hotel loyalty promotion or rate offer

Two Keys = a bonus value if you play, but not necessarily worth going out of your way.

One Key = There is limited or no value. You are likely paying more than the bonus value.

May 19 Current Hotel Loyalty Promotions: 

Best Western Rewards 

3-key Promotion $50 gift card after two stays by May 30 (March 30, 2010)

Elite Status Match Offer (February 19, 2010)

 

Carlson Hotels – Goldpoints Plus

5-Key promotion: Award Nights On Sale through May 31: Radisson 50% off, Country Inn and Park Inn 25% off

3-key promotion Up to Quadruple Points for stays through May 28, 2010 (March 31, 2010)

3-Key promotion: Radisson Hotels – Earn 5,000 AAdvantage bonus miles and get a sixth night free with a five night stay at a Radisson Hotel in the Caribbean by June 15.

 

Choice Hotels – Choice Privileges

2-key promotion: Buy Points and receive 10% bonus from April 12-May 25. Choice Privileges normally has a maximum annual purchase limit of 10,000 points per account. This offer allows the member to buy 11,000 points for $100. You can also buy points for other members’ accounts.

Choice Privileges Points Purchase Offer link.

 

Hilton HHonors

4-key promotion Nine bonus airline miles promotions that may be combined with free night promotion (April 13, 2010) [Note: most airline offers end June 30, some go to July 15 or 31, and some longer.]

4-key promotion Fast Ways to Free Stays (Earn a free night after every 4 stays or 10 nights through June 30) (April 7, 2010)

Hilton HHonors earn unlimited free nights through June 30 – Fast Ways to Free Stays promotion (April 4, 2010)

 

Hyatt Gold Passport

Alert: Hyatt Gold Passport hotel award categories are going up for 25% of hotels as of June 4, 2010. Book you reservations before June 4 to lock in lower award category rates. Loyalty traveler post.

5-key promotion – Big Welcome Back promotion for one free night after every two stays March 26-June 30 (March 26, 2010)

5-key promotion – Hyatt Gold Passport Instant Platinum Elite and Diamond Elite Fast-track (Feb 21, 2010) This offer appears to have ended.

4-Key promotion – Earn up to 25,000 American AAdvantage miles with 5 Hyatt stays May 3 – July 5 (May 3) – Earn 3,000 miles per Hyatt stay and 10,000 bonus miles after 5 Hyatt stays between May 3 and July 5.  You must set earning preference to miles. This offer is combinable with the Big Welcome Back offer for one free night after every two stays or 5,000 points after every two stays. 

3-Key Limited Time Offer American Express Membership Rewards Hyatt $100 certificate for 2-night stay for 1,500 Membership Rewards points through May 31, 2010. Certificate valid in US, Canada, and Caribbean through December 30, 2010.

3-key rate offer: $100 in Hyatt gift certificates for $80 at Costco. Many Costco stores carry these. Two $50 certificates cost $79.99. These certificates do not provide change. Effectively these certificates save up to 20% on room rates, but are not good on prepaid rates.  

3-key rate offer: Hyatt offers a COSTCO discount rate (use Group/Corporate # 13365) that is equivalent or even better than AAA rate for many hotels. The Costco discount rate is up to 25% for North America hotels. Bookings must be made between May 7 – September 9 for stays from May 7 through September 12.

There are several different codes being tossed around for this offer.

Inserting 13365 in the Group/Corporate # has worked best for me in retrieving the $25 per night credit rate and the rate tends to match the prepaid rate, but with cancellation policies equivalent to AAA rates. For a one night stay the AAA full breakfast rate may be a better deal. Compare prices.

• North American Park Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, and Andaz up to 25% + $25 nightly stay credit.
• Hyatt Place and Hyatt Summerfield Suites up to 15% discount.
• International Hyatt properties – up to 10% discount.

 

InterContinental Hotels Group – Priority Club

3-Key promotion: Priority Club Double Points or Double Miles May 14-August 31 (April 15)

3-key promotion: Ambassador members receive up to 10,000 points after stays in four different InterContinental Hotels. May 10-July 31. Registration required.

2-key promotion: Ambassador members receive 25,000 points for a two-night stay at participating InterContinental Hotels (June 1-September 30). Unfortunately most hotels are asking a significantly higher rate ($50 to $100 per night over lowest available) for this offer. Bonus may be earned three times for 75,000 points.

Priority Club PointBreaks 5,000 points per night awards to June 30 (March 29, 2010)

IHG Friend & Family Hotel Rates (Dec 26, 2010)

 

Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) – Leaders Club Rewards 

3-key promotion – Earn 1 free night after every 5 hotel stays in 2010. Must stay in at least two different hotels. Bellagio in Las Vegas is LHW member. (April 13, 2010)

 

Marriott Rewards

5-Key promotion – May 1-July 31 New members of Marriott Rewards earn a free night after two stays  (April 5, 2010)

4-key promotion – Global Promotion: One free Marriott Category 1 to 4 hotel night after three stays June 1 – August 31. The main drawback of this offer is the lower category limit for the free night. Marriott has an 8 category award system. There are some nice Category 4 hotels, however, most major tourist cities have full scale hotel properties in the category 5 or 6 level.

The free night offer is targeted and available to most Marriott Rewards members. Marriott Rewards elite members are likely to have received a points offer based on nights for their Global Promotion offer.

Alternate Points offer #1: Earn 20,000 points after 15 nights or 30,000 points after 20 nights.

Alternate Points offer #2: Earn 25,000 points after 20 nights or 40,000 points after 25 nights.

4-key promotion – Up to 60,000 Delta Skymiles. Earn 5,000 Skymiles per stay beginning with your second stay from May 1 through September 6, 2010. Registration required. Note: Your Marriott Rewards account earning preference must be set to miles for this offer to load correctly on your web browser.

1-Key offer – Marriott Rewards Instant Redemption Awards (March 24, 2010)

 

Starwood Preferred Guest

5-key promotion – Earn a free weekend night after every three stays (May 1-July 31)

4-Key promotion – Earn 1,000 AAdvantage bonus miles for every stay with Sheraton Hotels in North America (US, Canada, and Caribbean) through July 31. No limit. This offer may be combined with the stay three earn a free weekend night.

3-key promotion SPG link: Pay Your Birthyear Rate (This promotion can be an incredible savings or no savings depending on the hotel and your birthyear.) LT post 4/28/2009

3-key limited time offer Buy up to 20,000 Starpoints at 20% discount = $28/1,000 points through May 31. SPG link

1-key promotion Four Points Breakfast for a Buck (April 12, 2010)

Starpoints Airline Direct Deposit is Better for United, Continental, and Singapore miles (March 25, 2010)

 

Wyndham Rewards

4-Key promotion: Earn up to 13,500 American AAdvantage miles after 3 stays from April 30 to September 30, 2010.

Hotel Points-to-Miles Conversion Tables for 9 hotel programs and 7 U.S. airlines (March 30, 2010)

 

Other Good Offers:

Frequentflyerbonuses.com – Five Years, Five Ways to Win (2005-2010)

5^th Anniversary Contest – Prize is $250 Marriott Gift card or 10,000 Spirit Airlines miles

5-key limited time offers: Discover America Daily Getaways – There are special offers every weekday (Mon-Fri) from May 3 through June 4 for travel items. Several hotel chains have listed points packages for unprecedented savings on points purchases. Starwood and Hyatt both offered points at more than a 50% discount. There are some real deals.

My headache subsided as we reached the sea air of the city of Ventura around noon Sunday. The morning coastal fog was a little less brown traveling out of Los Angeles County.

SoCal is so crowded. Truly.

It is a fact that the SoCal area is densely populated. 17-million-plus people according to the 2000 census live in an area of about 3,000 square miles of urban sprawl. Development stretches solidly from Los Angeles County south to San Diego and east past Riverside. There are lots of mountain ridges surrounding the LA basin and Orange County valleys and there are views all over of the barren hillsides too unstable for development, and even some desert tracts without houses or businesses or freeways, but travel north or south on the I-5 or I-405 San Diego freeways and you drive for hours through a solid mass of tract homes, shopping malls, industry—light and heavy, surface roads and infrastructure to support the largest and most densely populated metropolitan sprawl in the USA outside of urban New York City.

Kelley asked where downtown LA is located as she looked out the car window for the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast. I pointed my finger in the direction where I thought the downtown skyscrapers were located relative to our position on the 405, but we couldn’t really see it through the coastal fog-smog.

In comparison to SoCal, the San Francisco-East Bay-San Jose corridor is around 5 million people living in a city on the peninsula that ends with the Golden Gate Bridge and under 1,000 square miles spreading primarily east and south of the San Francisco Bay and extending through the valleys. The primary difference between the two densely populated areas of northern and southern California is an abundance of natural space left around San Francisco’s dense urban development.

The San Francisco Bay area has plenty of access to the undeveloped seashore or just a short drive allows you to hang out in the forests of trees to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge or south along the eighty mile stretch of peaks and valleys in the Santa Cruz Mountains separating the Santa Clara Valley (San Jose area) from the sea. Kelley and I drove along Skyline Drive ten days ago where the road runs the ridge top and views of both the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean provide a breathtaking vista on a clear day.

The Santa Cruz Mountains is the location for the Tour of California cycling race today from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. Kelley is a Lance Armstrong fan. My cheers go out for Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck. We can’t wait for the Tour de France.

Back to the OC

There were some beautiful moments and remembrances throughout the weekend. The view out the 16^th floor windows of the Hyatt Long Beach to what is a truly long strip of sandy beach is a Southern California dream. Kelley liked the water fountains on the coastal islands. I explained to her the islands a few hundreds yards out in the water are actually decorated oil wells. She had a clue after an hour walk on the sandy beach in the lapping water and five minutes scrubbing her blackened feet back in the hotel room.

I hadn’t been in Long Beach for nearly twenty years and I was impressed by the downtown and waterfront development. The area has appeal with brewpubs, restaurants, the Aquarium, the beach, the Queen Mary, walking paths, light rail, and entertainment spots.

Hyatt Long Beach is attached to the Long Beach Convention Center. The hotel was perfectly situated for the festivities of the weekend.

Long Beach was preparing for a gay day with 80,000 attendees projected for the Long Beach Pride Festival. I love a good party. Unfortunately, Kelley and I were both sick with a flu-type cold. I was so sick that I hardly took any photos of the Hyatt Long Beach hotel.

On a foggy Saturday morning, a ray of light shone through a bright spot to illuminate a center portion of a bridge with a radiant white glow while everything else remained a subdued foggy grey. The day was not a day for me and Kelley to party anyway as my family gathered on the hillside of San Pedro above the sparkling Pacific in the cool afternoon sun of Saturday. We came to SoCal to memorialize my sister’s husband who died suddenly and unexpectedly at the young age of 52 in Seattle two weeks before.

Dana, my brother-in-law was a brilliant man and loving husband originally from the OC; a Renaissance literature scholar, www.Shakespeare.com founder, and computer science engineer educated at UC Santa Cruz and a doctorate from Yale University. He had a preference for quality over value in travel and fine dining while maintaining a progressively friendly sensibility to politics and the environment.

He and my sister help me maintain some sort of connection to the current pulse of the finer arts in terms of music, literature, theater and film. They never asked me for hotel advice. They were more focused on experiential travel rather than value travel. We generally met up in Las Vegas these past few years where I would visit them in their room at the Wynn or Bellagio and they would visit me in my suite at Planet Hollywood. I often had the bigger room but they generally had the more upscale room. They are the kind of guests hoteliers love.

“Ain’t it funny how you are walking through life and it turns on a dime.” – Vonda Shephard.

Enough of the personal remembrances and on to the hotels and my NoCal biased platitudes on SoCal life.

Hyatt Regency Irvine had us looking out over the 405 freeway where I surveyed freeway lights, wide streets, and the glow of office buildings.  The Marriott Hotel and Crowne Plaza in the distance, past the large low rise industrial warehouses next to the freeway are pretty to see at night. In the daylight Sunday I couldn’t help but feel I had the Orange County Blues again.

For me, hotel stays in the OC are like a bad gambling run whether playing at the Hyatt, Starwood, or Hilton table. I keep thinking my luck will change, but I haven’t had a decent upgrade in an Orange County hotel in years. We really should just save our money and sleep on my sister’s couch.

This SoCal climate of six lane freeways and foggy morning skies that burn and meld into smoggy afternoon hazes kind of turns our NoCal  (Northern California) sensibilities rancid. We saw a bloodied man Saturday afternoon on the 405 in the center lanes of the six lane freeway and drivers were haphazardly accelerating across four lanes to cut me off as they sped around the injured man lying in the center of the freeway.

By Sunday morning I needed the northern California sea again so I could see again.

Driving 101 home I decided that San Luis Obispo County, 200 miles north of LA County is where northern California starts — at the point on the road where Highway 101 posts bear crossings. Yeah, real bear crossing signs are posted beside the freeway just south and north of San Luis Obispo. This felt like home again when we were back in a place where black bears can still survive in the wild in the large Los Padres National Forest and Ventana Wilderness region stretching from Los Angeles to Monterey.

I can complain about the Hyatt Irvine hotel view, but the hotel stay worked out okay. Kelley and I had a free breakfast on our AAA rate and 6,158 points with the 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond amenity points + 2,500 points for a closed Regency Club on the weekend + 2,000 points for a G2 Bonus, and 658 points for the $101 room rate.

The Hyatt Regency Irvine had a prepaid rate of $83 per night for Saturday night, but I paid the $101.15 AAA rate to enable the use of my Costco certificates and the AAA rate includes breakfast in case you aren’t a Gold Passport Diamond member.

Hyatt Irvine and other places like Hyatt Santa Clara have some incredible value opportunities for the traveler with flexibility. The Hyatt Irvine rates during mid-week were $200 per night and the Regency Club bonus would be deducted from the total points. But a cheap weekend night and 6,000 points on a $100 room night and a two stays for one free night promotion period makes Hyatt quite the deal for May and June travel.

How long will Hyatt Gold Passport retain these lucrative high value incentives for Gold Passport members?

Live and stay for today while loyalty living is good.

Tomorrow is unpredictable.

Holiday Inn Express held its 2010 rates better than any other major IHG brand with just a 3.6% decline and nightly room rates averaging $92.48 in the Americas. Compare this to the upper upscale Crowne Plaza brand with a 6.5% annual rate decline and nightly rates at $99.85. Crowne Plaza at the upper upscale end of IHG is a relative bargain hotel.

There are minimal rate differences for the three largest IHG brands comprising 83% of the rooms in the Americas. There is less than a 10% difference in average room rate in the Americas with Holiday Inn at the low end of the major brands to $90.96, Holiday Inn Express at $92.48 and the Crowne Plaza at the high end $99.85.

The Americas region biggest year-over-year room rate drop by hotel brands are within extended stay market with Staybridge Suites (8% decline to $93.37) and Candlewood Suites (11.5% decline to $62.49).

InterContinental maintains a significantly higher room rate competitive set with average rates at $153 per night being 50% more than Crowne Plaza in the Americas.

Crowne Plaza rates in EMEA region at $145 per night make the 25,000 point Priority Club awards one of the best value awards. InterContinental average rates are also 50% higher in EMEA region making these award nights good value. Earning points in the Americas and burning points in the EMEA is a good travel strategy for Priority Club members.

Holiday Inns at $114 per night in EMEA are about 25% higher room rates than the $91 for Holiday Inn in the Americas.

Room rates dropped about 5% overall from 2009 to 2010 in both the Americas and EMEA regions while room occupancy averaged about 60% in EMEA to 55% in the Americas.

Rates in Asia are more in line with the Americas than EMEA region.

The drop in the Euro these past few weeks should see the rates in EMEA region drop substantially more in the next quarter if the dollar remains strong.

Data source: http://www.ihgplc.com/files/results/results10Q1/downloads/slides10Q1.pdf

There is an absence of Starwood hotels in the 300 miles on Highway 101 South along the central coast region between the San Francisco Bay (Sheraton Sunnyvale, and also Sheraton San Jose and the new Four Points San Jose a few miles off 101) and Ventura (Starwood Four Points Ventura). The high-tech industrial business parks of the Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County turn agricultural as you head south to the Salinas Valley. This is my home territory in Monterey County that reveals the multiculturalism of life in this part of America. Pull off Highway 101 in a Salinas Valley town like Gonzales or Chualar and you feel like you are in Mexico as many of the signs you see and most of the conversations you hear are in Spanish.

These are the lettuce and spinach fields that feed the country stretching for a hundred miles through the Salinas Valley. In the southern Salinas Valley the wineries have become the most lucrative development of the past two decades as dozens of square miles now grow grapes. Then you come to Paso Robles. Head east from Paso Robles on Highway 46 and you cross the San Andreas earthquake fault line. There used to be a sign marking the fault, but I guess it was stolen too many times because it hasn’t been around for a couple of years.

Highway 46 is the road where James Dean crashed his car and died in 1955. The road is still dangerous these days as cars try to pass trucks on the 70 mile two-lane stretch from Highway 101 across the central valley to connect to Interstate 5 for high speed travel to southern California. Kelley doesn’t like the straight freeway through the central valley so we usually drive Highway 101 when heading to Los Angeles which gives glimpses of the coast. Highway 1 is the true coast road that goes through Monterey and along the Big Sur coast, but the Cabrillo Highway, as it is called in Monterey County, is for leisurely tourist travel since the average speed is only about 30 miles per hour for the 100 miles from Monterey to Pismo Beach.

Here is my brief hotel rundown for Highway 101 driving the central coast of California.  Salinas has an adjacent Marriott Courtyard and Residence Inn but you are 20 miles from the sea of Monterey Bay at this location. The Salinas Valley closes in at Lost Hills and past Paso Robles you come to San Luis Obispo, a college town with Cal Poly SLO and an Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn Express, and Marriott Courtyard. This is an expensive place due to the college and the remoteness of SLO along the central coast region of California.

Your first glimpse of the sea is seven miles farther at Pismo Beach if driving Highway 101 south. There are some incredible ocean views from the Best Western Shelter Cove Lodge in Pismo Beach situated on the cliffs.

I saw half a dozen Motel 6 signs reading $49.99 along Highway 101 on this drive south. Some of the Motel 6 hotels looked pretty nice considering I had 270 miles to drive from Monterey to Four Points Ventura. The Motel 6 hotels didn’t have ocean views, but some looked rather nice. Marriott Courtyards are all over the place along Highway 101 and there is the occasional Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn.

What kind of blew me away while driving from north of Santa Barbara on Highway 101 South to Ventura is my car compass constantly read East. Look at a map and you see the southern California coast is much farther east than the northern California coast. In fact, the city of Reno, Nevada east of Lake Tahoe is actually a more westerly location than Los Angeles.

Finally we arrived in Ventura and it is a few miles on a surface road to reach the Four Points hotel at Ventura Harbor. The Four Points Ventura has four suites, but with the Pasadena Police Department holding a hotel conference I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t rank high enough for a suite upgrade.

The hotel was refurbished one year ago. The hotel is three floors with 102 guest rooms and 4 suites. The room had a flat screen TV, balcony patio, comfortable bed and couch-bed. The room was larger than average and I feel it would be comfortable for a family of four. The room was basic but with amenities like a refrigerator and desk area and complimentary internet. The lobby and restaurant are appealingly decorated and suitable for hanging out. There are three tennis courts (worn looking), a basketball hoop, swimming pool, separate glass atrium enclosed spa tub in the gardens, and bicycles for rent.

You do not see the ocean from here. Well technically, I guess the boat harbor is the ocean, but it looks like a large boat parking lot. The beach is past the harbor and in walking distance.

The hotel has some connection to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for its design. The interesting aspect is the property looks like it was once one large hotel, but now the Four Points is half the hotel and an elevated walkway crossing over a lightly used road connects to the Holiday Inn Express hotel. The Holiday Inn Express hotel actually has the better harbor views but from what I gathered on TripAdvisor, the rooms are not as nice at the Holiday Inn Express.

All in all, I agree with one reviewer from TripAdvisor who stated this hotel is a good $100 per night hotel. Those are the kind of rates you might typically find in the off-season. This property is a SPG category 2 hotel for 4,000 points on weekdays and 3,000 points on weekends. I consider this hotel a great points redemption hotel for SPG members since the rates are typically around $140 per night or higher after tax.

As an SPG Platinum member I received a coupon with a choice of a) 2-for-1 beer; b) 20% off an entrée item; c) free dessert with an entrée purchase. Kelley and I had a good lunch at the restaurant with 2-for-1 beer.

Frugal Travel Guy, Rick Ingersoll (ingy) and friends have put together an incredible weekend of loyalty program seminars covering airlines, rental cars, and hotels. The event is open for registration today and hotel room bookings at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove seminar location.

All the details are listed on the first page of this FlyerTalk thread.

You may want to register for the seminars and book a room quickly as this event looks like it has already generated a groundswell of interest.

Satori is presenting a Loyalty Traveler hotel programs seminar at the Chicago FlyerTalk MegaDO this October 16-17. I realized this morning that I am the only presenter in the FlyerTalk line-up who is listed by my real name, Ric Garrido, rather than my FlyerTalk handle – satori.

You may not know that Ric Garrido, the Loyalty Traveler also posts as “satori” on FlyerTalk since I probably have the lowest post count (1,838 posts in 10.6 years) and lowest per day posting average (0.48 posts per day for the past decade) of all the presenters after 11 years hanging out on FlyerTalk since May 1999.

Here is my seminar description that I quickly wrote in a few minutes so the agenda will likely change as I actually create a presentation.

Seminar #6 Hotel Loyalty Progams

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Actual Scheduled Time is Sunday, Oct 17, 11AM to 12:45 PM

Ric Garrido Quote “Are you getting at least 100% return on investment for your annual hotel spend? If you are not getting $6,000+ in hotel stay value for $3,000 in hotel spend, then you are probably not aware of the best promotions or program benefits for your travel style.

* Cheap Elite (How little can I spend and maintain top-elite status?)
* Surveying top-elite status across hotel programs (Who gets what at hotels when you are elite?)
* Comparative value of points across programs. (What does 1,000 points buy in award value?)
* Advice for finding the lowest hotel rates that still earn points (tips for finding low rates on hotel’s corporate websites, including Special Offers, Twitter and Facebook.)
* Advice for finding lower hotel rates when a cheap room is more important than points (Forget the points! Employee rates; cheap night deals).
* How online travel agencies fit into the hotel loyalty program world and when to use an online travel agency
* Hotel mattress runs (Tips on planning and how to not ruin a vacation trip with someone you love)
* Survey of Points-to-Miles exchange rates across hotel programs (If SPG is your only miles exchange program, then you are missing out on some better deals.)
* Buying points (Tips and advice)
* Best value awards (Cash & Points, Hotel + Miles packages, PointBreaks/Savers/Stretchers)
* Aspirational hotel loyalty awards (Paradise with an ocean view!)
* Hotel Loyalty Planning for 2011 (What will happen after two years of unprecedented loyalty promotions?)

I welcome additional topic suggestions from potential seminar participants.”

Here is the Seminar line-up and registration information as shown on FlyerTalk:

Chicago Seminar DO October 16th and 17th 2010

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The stars aligned somehow and a host of speakers are available to put on multiple seminars all in one weekend this fall in the Windy City.

The event will be October 16th and 17th And here is the seminar lineup:

1. Rookie Bootcamp led by Bikeguy
2. Mileage Run #1 with Viajero Joven as leader. Hooray VJ is back.
3. Mileage Run #2 with Wanaflyforless
4. Booking Award Travel by Gleff
5. Good Credit = Free Travel and How to Bump by Ingy and Lucky9876coins
6. Hotel Loyalty Programs by Ric Garrido of the Loyalty Traveler blog
7. The Rental Car Kings with Mrp Alert and Evan!
8. The Legends of Flyertalk with confirmations so far by Pudding Guy, Beaubo, MrPickles, Wanaflyforless and more to come. Yes, we have asked Randy.
9. Coupon Connection Event moderated by Beaubo
10. Alliance Roundtable with Wanaflyforless on OneWorld, Beaubo on Skyteam and Gleff on the Star Alliance. The LCC’s will also be included
11. Sponsors Roundtable will offer eight 10 to12 minutes presentations by those websites, resorts, etc supporting this event.

Registration

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Registration is Now Open for the Chicago Seminar DO

1. No one under 18 will be allowed in the presentation rooms for any reason for any amount of time. No exceptions. If you must bring someone who can’t be left alone, you will need to arrange for a babysitter. PM the Chicago local contact “toomanybooks,” who will look into that possibility.

2. We are requesting no media and no recording or video of any of the presentations.

3. You may register for 5 seminars plus the Rookie Bootcamp and the Sponsors Roundtable.

(Remember that Mileage Run #1 is a 4-hour event and will count as 2 of your 5 seminars.)

4. Note that 2 seminars will be running at all times, except during Rookie Bootcamp and the Sponsors Workshop. Please make sure you aren’t selecting two simultaneous seminars. Seminar Hopping is disrespectful to the presenters and disruptive to the audience. Please refrain from “hopping”

5. Edwin “Win” Schaeffer (“toomanybooks” on Flyertalk) is handling the registration fees and tabulating your seminar selections.

REMEMBER TO PAY $20 FOR EACH PERSON ATTENDING.

The two methods for paying the $20 registration fee are:

A. Paypal to Win’s account.
The Paypal address is efsebay@aol.com
This method is greatly preferred, because you will be registered instantly. If you can pay from your Paypal balance or from your checking account (choose “personal”), you will save us the 2.9% + 30 cents fee.

See details here:
https://cms.paypal.com/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/send_money_how_it_works

B. Check or money order payable to “Edwin Schaeffer” and mailed to PO Box 335, Flossmoor, IL 60422.
In this case, you will be registered when your check clears. Should we have a flood of registrations, which is likely considering the many responses we have had (both public and private), it is possible that we will fill up before your check can even arrive, so please try to use Paypal if at all possible.

Using either method we need the following information (put it in the Paypal memo box):
1. Your name, address, and phone number.
2. Email address
3. Flyertalk handle (preferred) or a six to eight character “handle of your choosing.” This will be used to notify you that your registration has been completed. We don’t want to post your real name online. You will be able to access the registrant information either at a Google Doc we are establishing, or in the thread itself for the seminars. Please check it for accuracy.
Notes accompanying your registration should look like this:

Jane Doe, 123 Main St, Chicago,IL 98765, 202-123-4567, jdoe@gmail.com, Seminars # 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10

Note: this example includes the Rookie Bootcamp, hence 6 seminars.

Remember that Mileage Run #1 (seminar #2) is 4 hours long and counts as 2 of your 5 (or 7 with Bootcamp and Sponsors) seminars.

None of the meeting organizers is being compensated from these fees although leftover funds may help with their lodging expenses. The presenters are generously paying their own way to the event.

6. Please note that we reserve the right to change the schedule depending on number of responses or other contingencies. If very few people are interested in a specific seminar, it might be canceled or held after hours in the lounge or something.

7. We will certainly need volunteers to handle various tasks such as coordinating carpools to/from ORD. PM “toomanybooks” if you can help.

8. Host hotel reservation procedures are described below in the Meeting Planners Post. This hotel will probably sell out quickly as the per night charge is quite reasonable. Those staying onsite will be provided free breakfast and lunch both days (1st occupant per room) and a two-hour cocktail party Saturday evening. People staying offsite or at home or the second person in a room will pay for those things separately. Please follow the information in the post below:

We will be using two separate seminar rooms and anticipate the following schedule: Subject to change (based on who knows what at this point?)

Saturday

8AM to 9 Breakfast

9AM to 9:45 AM Rookie Bootcamp

9:45 AM to 10 Coffee Break

10AM to 11:45 Mileage Run Seminar 1(part 1) or Award Booking

11:45 to 1:00 PM Lunch

1:00PM to 2:45 PM Mileage Run Seminar 1(part2) or The Rental Car Kings

2:45PM to 3:00 PM Coffee Break

3PM to 5PM Mileage Run Seminar 2 or Good Credit and Bumps

5:00 PM to 6:30 PM Relax It’s been a long day

6:30PM to 8:30PM Meet for Dinner (onsite or offsite) or on your own

8:30PM to 10:30PM Open Bar Reception for Hotel Guests

Sunday

8AM-9AM Breakfast

9AM to 10:45 AM Sponsors Workshop

10:45 AM to 11 AM Coffee Break

11AM to 12:45PM Alliance Roundtable or Hotel Loyalty Programs

12:45 AM to 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM to 4:00 PM Coupon Connection or Legends of Flyertalk

4PM Close and Have a Safe Trip Home

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Check out the Chicago Seminar DO

Satori’s Background

My first miles coup was the Healthy Choice chocolate pudding deal (120,000 miles for $500) in May and June 1999. This same deal made FlyerTalk’s Pudding Guy a legend when he earned 1.25 million miles for around $3,200. You may see there is a discrepancy in the math – Pudding Guy got 10x more miles for 6x more dollars. Pudding Guy got his UPC pudding stickers posted by the May 31 deadline for double miles and I only had a portion of my pudding receipts purchased and mailed by May 31, 1999. Pudding Guy is scheduled to be at the Chicago Do. In retrospect everyone thinks what a great deal and why didn’t I get in on it? They don’t know what it was like to wonder if Healthy Choice would even honor the discount priced pudding cups from Canned Food Warehouse purchases. Like most gambles the deal looks great after you win.

I planned and purchased my first 300,000 bonus miles mileage run from the information I learned on FlyerTalk before I even joined the FlyerTalk bulletin board in November 1999. I should have earned 400,000 bonus miles from my five airline oneworld alliance industrial tour of Manchester, Rotterdam, and Barcelona, however, I was still a novice at the fine art of deciphering airline partner eligible booking codes in 1999.

I never made that mistake again.

In 2000 I completed the LatinPass 1,000,000 mile promotion. I used the Healthy Choice miles to fly to Miami and Ecuador for the start of the LatinPass trips. I had a scary moment when the Quito airport police pulled me out of line and wanted to know why I had left Quito, Ecuador flown to Lima, Peru and back to Quito again on the same day. I barely made my flight.

In 2001 I traveled to Asia several times when United had Singapore-San Francisco tickets for under $300 all-in. Notice the starting city was Singapore. I used miles to get to Singapore to start back-to-back mileage runs. I reached Mileage Plus 1K with a terribly sore butt. My wife and I had the month of October 2001 off in our year-round school teaching schedule and we traveled to Europe several times on the incredible bargains after 9-11 while visiting our parents on stopovers in the states.

In 2002 we earned 500,000 miles for under $2,000 with the Star Alliance 5^th anniversary promotion.

In 2003 I started focusing on hotel travel and we earned 120,000 Starpoints for $1,800 while touring Australia during Starwood’s Asia-Pacific promotion to Stay in 5 Starwood Hotel brands for 50,000 bonus points.

It was a tough decision to go to Australia in 2003 since I had already planned a trip across Scandinavia using Scandic Hotels at 10,000 HHonors points per night. Then HHonors changed their award chart and I cashed 800,000 points for GLON 6-night awards before the rate went up from 100,000 points to 150,000 points. The British Airways award changes in June 2003 were the deciding factor. The cost of BA First Class from USA-London-Asia-Australia increased from 150,000 miles to 420,000 miles. My wife and I planned a 5 week trip to Europe and Australia in First Class, while earning 120,000 Starpoints in Australia and staying a couple of weeks in European Hilton Hotels for free. The $56,000 First Class tickets cost about $500 all-in after taxes. BA had to pay Australia a $5,000AUD fine when I arrived in Melbourne and the immigration officials learned that BA had never issued an electronic visa for my arrival. My face dropped when immigration took me to the special room at 4am until the officer finally explained that BA was responsible for paying the fine and not me.

In 2003 I earned 140,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for $700 with 35 flight segments across the Pacific Northwest. My wife flew British Airways First Class to Europe using 100,000 Alaska miles.

I accumulated about 4,000,000 miles from mileage runs between 1999 and 2004. I earned another 1,000,000 or so miles from internet shopping portals like ClickRewards, MyPoints, GreenPoints, and a whole slew of other programs that offered miles and hotel points until the markets crashed and most of these programs went out of business by 2001.

I haven’t done a mileage run since 2007 when I flew back-to-back trips from Buenos Aires to New York in Delta Business Class on $500 tickets. I finally found satori flying over the Andes of Chile and Argentina and like Tom Hanks character in Forrest Gump, I just stopped running.

Hyper-mobility across the globe was replaced by a desire to spend more time with family and hang out in nice hotel rooms at a leisurely pace.  

Hope to see you in Chicago.

Nor1 is the Silicon Valley company that “upgrades your life” through software used by several hotel chains for providing web services to upsell rooms after guests have made a hotel booking purchase. I have come across several of these internet Nor1 “e-standby upgrade” options lately with Hyatt Hotel bookings.

The Hyatt e-standby upgrade offers are usually less than the cost asked by the Hyatt website for the same room at the time of booking. The amount of savings is variable depending on the room type desired. The Nor1 e-standby upgrade options are presented immediately after booking a room and are designed to get incremental revenue from the guest by offering an up-sell at a rate lower than what was just available the minute before you actually booked the room.

My consumer tip for guests is to book a lower category room than you actually want and see if e-standby upgrade offers accompany your booking. This can be a cheaper way to book a preferred view room or a even a suite. Just be sure you book a rate that can be changed since the “e-standby upgrade” offers are not revealed until after you confirm a booking with a credit card. If you don’t get the upgrade offers with your booking, then you can simply cancel and book the room you really desire.

Examples of e-standby upgrade offers are shown below for Hyatt Regency Valencia and Hyatt Regency Long Beach. Hotels with Carlson Hotels (Radisson), Hilton, Kimpton, Hyatt and many other hotels use the Nor1 e-standby upgrade system.

Hyatt Regency Valencia, California - Here is an example of the rate differential with Nor1 upgrades.

Paid rate = $109.65 King Bed Standard Room (AAA rate)

Nor1 e-standby upgrade offers:

1. View King, 364 sq. ft. (Hyatt Gold Passport upgrade at no cost)
2. Terrace King, 364 sq. ft. (Hyatt Gold Passport upgrade at no cost)
3. Junior Suite, 470 sq. Ft. (e-standby upgrade for $29) (Adjusted Nightly Rate = $138.65)
4. Panorama Suite, 800 sq. ft. (e-standby upgrade for $109) (Adjusted Nightly Rate = $218.65)

Lowest available rate for these rooms at time of booking

• View King $144
• Terrace King $149 ($126.65 AAA)
• Junior Suite $179 (Hyatt Daily Rate, no AAA rate listed)          
• Panorama Suite $227 (Awaken Package)

 

Hyatt Regency Long Beach, California – Here is an example of the rate differential with Hyatt’s “e-standby upgrades” at this hotel.

Paid rate = $179.10 King Bed Standard Room (AAA rate)

Hyatt Gold Passport and e-standby upgrade offers:

1. Harbor View King, 320 sq. ft. (e-standby upgrade for $11) (Adjusted Nightly Rate = $190.10)
2. Panoramic View King, 320 sq. ft. (e-standby upgrade for $15) (Adjusted Nightly Rate = $194.10)
3. Business Plan King, 320 sq. ft. (e-standby upgrade for $19) (Adjusted Nightly Rate = $198.10)
4. Regency Club King, 320 sq. ft. (complimentary Hyatt Gold Passport upgrade = $179.10)  

Lowest available rate for these rooms at time of booking

• Harbor View King $192.60 AAA
• Panoramic View King (this room category is not shown in regular rate search)
• Business Plan King, $206.10 AAA
• Regency Club King, $215.10 AAA

Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members receive complimentary access to the Regency Club lounge. The Regency Club level might be a great deal for non-elite members if it were the same price. I have the feeling that the software is a little more sophisticated to extract the maximum amount of money from users, but I have little evidence to support this theory.

I should make some bookings (no cancellation penalties of course) using my wife’s account to see how the rate differentials compare for an e-standby upgrade to Regency Club vs. lowest available rate for Regency Club. Better yet would be data from some readers who are not Diamond elite sharing with loyalty travelers rates they find with e-standby upgrade rates compared to the other available rates. Is e-standby upgrade a way to a cheaper Regency Club access level?

Loyalty traveler can be the database for Nor1 rates comparable to what the Biddingfortravel.com site does for Priceline bids.

I have used the e-standby upgrade option before and received a better room with a huge balcony for a $15 premium at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency. I think I saved $20 to $30 on the cost of a balcony room. On several previous stays at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara I never received a balcony room as a Hyatt Diamond member. Perhaps my average paid rate around $83 per night may be why I haven’t done so well on the upgrade front.

Of course, I have Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member complimentary suite upgrades, but those four precious confirmed upgrades are more valuable saved for other locations with more desirable views than a computer industry business park. The beautiful mountains dotted with coast redwoods to the west of the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara are just a bit too far at about 15 to 20 miles away to distract the guest from the flatlands of southern San Francisco Bay where Silicon Valley meets the sea (actually named “Santa Clara Valley” geographically).